Chart of the day: Oil's slide spreads

The week has not been an easy one so far for Malaysian markets. Its main share index opened the week with a 2.3 per cent drop, its biggest one-day decline in almost two years. As if that was not worrying enough, the ringgit traded at 3.4375 to the US dollar, its weakest since March 2010. The culprit? The fall to five-year lows in crude oil price, which has dragged with it the shares of oil and gas giants and petrocurrencies. Indonesia is also suffering, as are equity prices in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, the Norwegian krone and of course the Russian rouble. For Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, a close below the neckline of a rounded top sees measured targets and retracement support beckon that could easily take the index back towards 1,600-point territory.